Jay working on the bars for my sporty.

Here’s a quick overview article about frame welding that I picked up off the Miller website and turned into a PDF for easy download. I’d consider this an intro article - all great info that you need to know, but if you don’t know it already, and don’t have the experience to back it up, you should NOT be welding a frame. If you like the idea of building your own frame and want to learn more about it, it’s something to read to get you started in the process, but what you’ll need after that is many hours of hands on experience. I’m all for the do-it-yourself ethic, but welding up a frame after you read an article and bought your first welder is just straight up stupid. By all means, devour all the information you can, but know when and where to draw the line and call in a professional. Regardless, some good info in the piece, even if you have no interest in welding up a frame, if you’re into building bikes, it’s good stuff to know. To download the PDF, click on the image below.

Pull Technique

Push Technique

I was flipping through my hard drive and stumbled on these pics of Dave (aka Tigman) that I totally forgot about. These were taken when Dave was welding on some brackets and other miscellaneous mounts to my Suzuki Savage chopper project. He was also was working on an oil tank for the Triumph chopper Chris built that he sold off earlier this year.

As always, I can’t say enough good things about Dave, especially when it comes to high quality welding work at a great price. Check out his website www.tanksbytigman.com and give him a call for any welding or metal work you may need.

Here’s another free eBook for you to download as part of our “Old books for backyard motorcycle builders” series.
Checking in from the year 1914 is 222 pages of Welding enlightenment. The quality is dodgy in a few places, but still a lot of great info to soak up, and hey it’s free, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Click the link to download: Welding e-Book

Quick video on how to set up a oxy-acetylene torch for welding and brazing, which also touches on the carbonizing flame. Very well done, looks like it comes from an instructional DVD of some sort. The narrator is specifically talking about using it with bronze, but the torch set up for getting a neutral flame (for welding other types of metal via oxy-acetylene) is the same. Good stuff.

Lincoln Electric published this PDF on how to make your own metal welding table. Relatively simple project, great for a novice welder (like myself). Material cost should be relatively inexpensive, and it’s a good way to practice.

Another quick and cheap way to get yourself a welding table is to scour the craigslist free section for a free BBQ. Doesn’t matter what type or size, and the grill part obviously doesn’t have to work . For big parts the grill top should work fine, for smaller pieces you’ll probably want a piece of steel to place on top of the grill top so parts don’t fall through. Simple and cheap - two things I like.

Anyway, click the image above to download the PDF and check out this how-to.

edit: check the comments of this post for further discussion.

Of all the different types of welding, MIG welding is probably the easiest to learn. Yank and crank, super easy. However, if you’re a newb without any prior welding experience, you’re probably feeling a little clueless with the shiny new Lincoln 110 Santa brought you. Have no fear - we’ve got you covered. I posted some basic MIG welding videos before, back in October, but now I’ve stumbled upon another site which is just as handy. Go check out http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/ for a ton of great info, tutorials, videos and knowledge. Great info for all welder, especially for those of you who just “picked it up” along the way.